Obama team turns scrutiny on Bill Clinton

Peter Baker and Anne Davies, Washington

LAWYERS for Barack Obama's transition team have begun vetting the business and philanthropic interests of former US president Bill Clinton as the President-elect considers whether to appoint his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state.

But Mr Clinton's finances and activities could pose a conflict of interest. He has refused to disclose — and is not legally required to — the donors who funded his presidential library and his charitable foundation.

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Among the William J. Clinton Foundation donors who are publicly known are the Saudi royal family, the king of Morocco, a foundation linked to the United Arab Emirates, the governments of Kuwait and Qatar and a Ukrainian tycoon who was the son-in-law of the former Soviet republic's ousted authoritarian president.

Early this year there were media reports that Mr Clinton had travelled to Kazakhstan with a Canadian mining magnate, Frank Giustra, to meet its dictator president. Mr Giustra later won three lucrative uranium mining contracts from the government and then donated $US31 million to Mr Clinton's charity.

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Mr Obama met Senator Clinton secretly in Chicago last Thursday and word quickly filtered out. Many Democrats close to both camps said that it seemed likely that Mr Obama would ask her to take the secretary of state job, assuming they could work something out regarding Bill Clinton's role.

A team of lawyers trying to facilitate the potential nomination spent the weekend looking into the former president's philanthropic organisation, dealings with foreign governments and ties to pharmaceutical companies, an adviser to both camps said.

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The two sides are discussing what the former president would need to do to avoid a conflict of interest with the duties of his wife, who is said to be interested in becoming secretary of state.

For the past four years, Mr Clinton has convened the annual Clinton Global Initiative — a project of the William J. Clinton Foundation conference that brings together hundreds of corporate chiefs, heads of state, humanitarians and celebrities.

The foundation itself has ballooned into a global organisation with a staff of more than 800, tackling problems such as climate change, hunger, AIDS and malaria.

If Mr Obama selects Senator Clinton as his secretary of state, she will oversee many of the US Government's foreign aid programs, potentially turning the couple into an overwhelming force in global aid, say some leaders in the philanthropic community.

"She will be able to say in many of her meetings, 'We're in a situation where I can't commit congressional foreign assistance, but let me work with the philanthropic community back in the United States to see if there are ways that they can be helpful', " said Steve Gunderson, president of the Council on Foundations and a former Republican congressman.

But supporters of the former first lady reject the idea that her selection as secretary of state would be viewed through a prism of either the benefits or the baggage provided by her husband.

"She was one of the most successful primary candidates," said Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz.

"I really think that it's unfair to suggest that there's any type of a package that comes with her appointment."